Funded Gastroenteritis Vaccine for Babies Nearly Here!

Soon babies born in New
Zealand will be eligible for funded vaccination against
rotavirus gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus infection.
PHARMAC has funded ROTATEQ® (rotavirus vaccine, live, oral,
pentavalent) and added it to the Immunisation Schedule from
July 1st. But parents of young babies should be booking
their first vaccination visit now as timing for the
three-dose vaccine is very important.

Babies born on or
after 19th March 2014 are eligible for the newly funded
vaccine but only if the first dose is administered before
they are 15 weeks old. The final dose must be given before
the baby is 8 months old. Where possible ROTATEQ should be
given during the current routine immunisation visits at 6
weeks, 3 months and 5 months of age.

Merck Sharp & Dohme,
NZ Director, Paul Smith, says, “MSD is proud that 15 years
of research and development resulted in the availability of
this vaccine for New Zealand infants”.

ROTATEQ is an
oral vaccine that is squirted into the baby’s mouth. It
helps prevent diarrhoea and vomiting caused by rotavirus
infection.

As many parents know, diarrhoea and vomiting in
infants and young children can lead to dehydration and a
trip to the doctor or hospital. What is less well known is
that rotavirus infection is the most common cause of severe
gastroenteritis in young children. Almost all children will
be infected by rotavirus by five years of age.

Rotavirus
is highly contagious and although symptoms vary, those
typically associated with rotavirus gastroenteritis include
vomiting, fever, abdominal pain and watery diarrhoea, which
can last for three to eight days. These symptoms can lead
to severe dehydration causing one in every 43 children aged
under 5 needing hospital treatment in NZ.

Merck Sharp &
Dohme, NZ Director, Paul Smith, adds, “The funding of
ROTATEQ is not only great news for our children; but it will
also help alleviate the burden on our health care system and
on families who have to cope with sick infants. For many
parents there is also the concern of time away from work to
care for a sick child.”

In one of the largest vaccine
trials in history, involving 68,000 infants, RotaTeq reduced
the rate of hospitalisations and emergency department visits
by 94%, and reduced the number of guardian work days lost by
86%.

ROTATEQ is now available in 100 countries and over
109 million doses have been distributed worldwide. ROTATEQ
is used in national programmes in many countries such as
Australia, the United States, Austria, Finland, Israel and
Belgium.

About MSDToday's MSD is a
global healthcare leader working to help the world be well.
MSD is a tradename of Merck & Co., Inc., with headquarters
in Whitehouse Station, N.J., U.S.A.

Through our medicines,
vaccines, biologic therapies, and consumer and animal
products, we work with customers and operate in more than
140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We
also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to
health care through far-reaching policies, programmes and
partnerships. For more information, visit: www.msd.co.nz

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